Augustine Mukaro
10 August 2007
opinion
Harare — THE latest indication that Zimbabwe faces the worst wheat harvest this year since the launch of the controversial land reform programme is the culmination of a series of blunders which government has failed to correct over the past seven years.
The admission of a wheat failure is set to worsen the already acute bread shortages plus a host of other basic commodities, throwing into disarray all prospects of a quick economic recovery.
Farmers' organisations this week predicted a harvest way below the 78 000 tonnes produced last year against the country's annual requirement of 480 000 tonnes.
The farmers placed the blame for the poor yields on Zesa Holdings' failure to supply power, resulting in frequent countrywide blackouts. The erratic power supplies disrupted irrigation cycles on farms and damaged many electric irrigation pumps.
Indigenous Commercial Farmers Union president Wilson Nyabonda said wheat crops wilted in the fields from lack of irrigation.
"This is where things fell apart as electricity was only available in the first days of May," Nyabonda said. "From there onwards it became a nightmare for farmers."
The Zimbabwe Farmers Union, which represents mostly small-scale farmers, alleged that its members were forced to abandon crops because of the power crisis.
Farming experts however said although Zesa had contributed to the current season's crop failure, falling agricultural productivity was a combination of government blunders and other factors such as the shrinking of hectarage planted each year, poor planning, lack of confidence and financing, and unavailability of fuel and other inputs.
The experts quickly referred to the reduced irrigation capacity as a result of vandalism and theft of equipment.
"From the onset of the season, farmers had planted only 10% of the targeted winter wheat crop hectarage just two weeks before the recommended planting deadline," one expert said.
"Farmers over the years have complained of lack of farming inputs such as fuel, fertilisers, chemicals, seed and fuel, and commercial farming skills. In response to these problems, farmers have reduced hectarage or abandoned some portions when the power situation deteriorated."
Agriculture permanent secretary
Shadreck Mlambo in May told a parliamentary portfolio committee on agriculture that the targeted 76 000 hectares -- which would have produced 400 000 tonnes of wheat -- would not be achieved due to shortages of fuel and fertiliser.
"Close to 8 000 hectares have been planted so far and we need to go faster than this if we are to meet the targeted hectarage," Mlambo told the committee just two weeks before the planting deadline.
The recommended date for planting is May 31. Any wheat planted after that date delivers reduced yields, which are "not worth it".
Another official told the committee that farmers would need to till 2 000 hectares of land a day and plant the wheat crop at the same time, a process that required at least 1 000 tractors, which were not available.
The analysts said developments that dealt a severe blow to government's efforts to boost production included legislative changes and continued farm invasions which made it hard for investors to expand businesses.
The situation became untenable after government imported substandard fertiliser, while top government officials grabbed farming implements at the expense of ordinary farmers.
"Nationally, agricultural output has declined to a national joke," one analyst said. "The major constraint to increased productivity was the uncertainty of tenure in the agricultural sector where farmers are evicted on a daily basis. Continued acquisition notices, disruptions, acts of violence on farms and lack of land-based collateral are some of the problems farmers face."
Agricultural experts have said despite numerous promises that government would support new farmers with inputs and tillage, this has not happened in the past seven seasons.
In some cases where inputs were provided on time, they were diverted to the black market for quick returns.
Government measures to redress the situation through amendments to the Land Act since 2000 have not improved production.
In 2000, the government, through a presidential decree, began to compulsorily acquire white-owned commercial farms. The decree was later confirmed by the passing of the Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill in November 2000.
In September 2002, another amendment to facilitate the forcible eviction of defiant farmers was passed. Farmers had resisted eviction on the grounds that lending banks, which held their bonds, had not been informed of pending seizures as required by law.
This meant the government had to notify banks of farmers affected by the seizures and then reissue eviction notices. The amendment removed this impediment, resulting in mass evictions towards the end of 2002 and beginning of last year.
The final blow was Constitutional Amendment 17 which nationalised all land and barred farmers from contesting in court all land gazetted for acquisition since 2000.
"The tinkering with the legislation has failed to address the fundamental issue of security of tenure, which is crucial to securing funding," one expert said.
"The amendments have accelerated the acquisition of land without a corresponding increase in grain and cereal production. It has increased the conflict of ownership of business on the land and reduced investment in agriculture."
The amendments, analysts said, have scared away investors in the capital-intensive agro-processing industry and in agro-forestry sectors.
The chaotic land reform programme, which from inception was condemned by international donors as unworkable and a recipe for disaster, has turned out to be just that.
Over the past six seasons production in all facets of agriculture has plummeted, dragging the economy down with it. Farmers estimate production to have fallen by 70%.
As alarm bells ring over pending wheat shortages, the UN's World Food Programme has launched an appeal to donors for money to scale up the supply of emergency food aid to more than three million Zimbabweans.
Bread is an important part of the Zimbabwean diet. But state-imposed controls on the selling price have caused shortages, as bakeries refuse to produce bread and sell it at a loss. Long queues have become the order of the day in supermarkets supplying limited quantities of bread.
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